


Plan of Attack

by YetAnotherPersona



Series: A Minor Scheduling Error [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asgore Dreemurr Needs a Hug, Chara (Undertale) Needs a Hug, F/M, Nonbinary Chara (Undertale), Parent Asgore Dreemurr, Parent Toriel (Undertale), Poisoning, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, Toriel Needs a Hug (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25809676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YetAnotherPersona/pseuds/YetAnotherPersona
Summary: Chara tried to poison themself. Asgore and Toriel arrived home just in time to stop them.The immediate crisis has been averted, but now it's time to deal with the fallout. As the challenges of the future loom, Asgore wonders what his family's next steps should be.
Relationships: Asgore Dreemurr/Toriel, Chara & Asriel Dreemurr
Series: A Minor Scheduling Error [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872568
Comments: 12
Kudos: 62
Collections: Fanfiction From The Chara Defense Squad





	Plan of Attack

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a direct continuation of [Let That Be Enough.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25116859) I recommend you read it first if you haven't already.

The phone is ringing.

You sigh and rise from the bed, trying not to disturb Toriel and the children too much. She gives you a grateful smile and adjusts her arms to keep hold of both Asriel and Chara.

You wish you could stay here holding your family longer, but you suppose you have to deal with the demands of everyday life eventually. How much longer would you have stayed put if it were up to you? All the time in the world might not have been enough. You go into the hall to answer the phone.

“Dreemurr residence,” you say.

It’s Reonetta the housing secretary. “Good afternoon, your majesty; I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I just wanted to ask whether yourself and Queen Toriel will be at the apartment planning committee meeting this afternoon.”

“Ah, yes.” You look at the clock; the meeting will have just started, if you remember rightly. “Apologies; I’m afraid not. Chara has fallen ill, and we are both looking after them.”

“Oh, Goodness.” Reonetta says. “You definitely ought to stay home, in that case. I’ll tell the committee you’re busy. I hope Chara recovers quickly.”

“Thank you,” you say.

“I shan’t keep you any longer, then. Best of luck.” Reonetta hangs up.

Of all the people who could have called about your absence, you’re grateful it was her. Some of your less forgiving civil servants might have hounded you for more explanation, or pressured you to delegate Chara’s care to somebody else, but Reonetta’s always very understanding when it comes to personal crises.

You sigh again and lean against the wall. The current incident definitely merits an afternoon off, but you’ll need to return to your job eventually – next week, if not tomorrow. It’s at times like this that you wish you could abandon your title and responsibilities and the day-to-day drudgery of kinghood, and devote all your attention to wife and children – they deserve nothing less, especially now. But you have a duty to your kingdom that you can’t ignore. You will just have to make the most of what free time you can afford, and hope it proves to be enough.

So... what comes next? Your calendar is clear for the rest of the day now that you’ve made your excuses over the committee meeting. That leaves the whole afternoon and evening at your disposal. Certainly you can afford to spend a little more quality time with Toriel and the kids.

The kids. You’ll have to decide what to do about Chara. You and Toriel won’t be able to watch them twenty-four seven – you both have royal duties to perform, and sometimes that means leaving Chara and Asriel home alone. Before now, you’d never had to worry about coming back to anything worse than a broken vase, or Asriel crying after a bout of roughhousing-gone-too-far. But everything’s different now. If he and Chara try their plan again... well, now that there’s no hope of deceiving you with a fake illness, they wouldn’t need to waste time on a slow and surreptitious method. A few moments without supervision is all it would take.

You could appoint a sitter again, like you did when they were younger; that would at least keep Chara from harming themself. But it won’t do as a long-term solution. You won’t have your children growing up under round-the-clock surveillance; how can you expect them to ever trust you again if you refuse to show faith in them first?

You slouch back down the corridor towards your bedroom, hoping that you might be able to lie down again and put off all these difficult questions a little longer. But Toriel and the children are already getting up when you come back in. The moment has passed; real life has resumed.

“I think you could both use a drink, to begin with,” Toriel tells the children. “Gorey and I have had tea, but I imagine you’re both somewhat dehydrated.” She looks at Chara as she says that last part.

“I still would have drunk it, you know,” Chara mumbles. “If you’d told me what it was, I mean.”

“I’m sorry, Chara,” you say. “I should not have lied to you. You have every right to be upset.”

“I get why you did it,” they say. “You couldn’t be sure I’d drink it otherwise, and you needed to get the flowers out of my system.” Their tone is neutral, detached, like that of a military commander assessing a recent defeat. “As for what to drink now, I’ll just have water.”

“Good,” Toriel says. “And you, Asriel? Tea, soda, cocoa?”

“I’ll have cocoa, please,” Asriel says timidly. “W – what happened with Chara?”

“Dad tricked me into drinking a medicine that made me throw up the buttercups,” Chara explains before you or Toriel have time to phrase it more delicately.

“Oh,” says Asriel, clearly at a loss as to how to respond. “Um.”

There’s an uncomfortable silence.

“Well,” Toriel says brightly. “Water and cocoa. I’ll get started on those.” She strides out of the bedroom, and you and the children follow.

It’s shaping up to be one of the strangest afternoons of your life. Everybody’s quiet, unsure how to begin piecing back together the tattered remains of normal life. What would the kids usually be doing now? Video games? Homework? Nothing seems quite appropriate.

In the kitchen, Toriel fills a glass of water for Chara then begins heating milk on the stove. You see Asriel’s eyes flick quizzically to the heap of electronics and sharp objects on the countertop, but to your relief he doesn’t comment.

Once Asriel has his cocoa and everyone’s sat down, you clear your throat. “Asriel, Chara... there are some things I should explain. Toriel and I did not wish to burden you with the concerns that come with governing this kingdom at so young an age, but I think we can agree at this point that keeping you in the dark has done more harm than good.

You turn to your wife. “Toriel, if you will allow it, I am going to tell the children about what happened when Chara arrived... and about the plans we made.”

Toriel bites her lip, hesitant, but then nods. “I think it is time.”

“Very well.” You address the children again. “I shall say this first: Chara, from the day you arrived, none of us were oblivious to what we could do if we chose to take your soul. Some of our advisors proposed that we do so immediately, and use the power it would grant us to wage war on humanity.”

Asriel squeaks and claps his hands over his mouth, but Chara simply nods, showing no surprise.

“Naturally, Toriel and I never told you of this. We agreed immediately that carrying out such a plan would be unforgivably evil, and that it would be cruel to even let you find out it was an option. Part of the reason we chose to take care of you ourselves was to impress upon our people the fact that you were under the protection of the royal family, and to discourage any monster from trying something similar.

“What Toriel said earlier was true, Chara. When you fell into the underground you became one of us, part of our family. We wouldn’t sacrifice you for anything.”

Asriel’s anxious expression eases a bit, but Chara’s face is inscrutable as ever. You wait a moment, giving them time to answer.

“When I found out about monster and human souls,” Chara mumbles, “I knew you must’ve considered it. Maybe not you and Toriel, but someone had to. I wasn’t sure why you hadn’t already taken my soul, but I was scared to bring it up.”

It breaks your heart to imagine Chara harbouring the secret fear that any of the monsters around them might try to kill them and take their soul; being afraid to mention it to anyone in case it was only ignorance that kept you and Toriel from striking them down on the spot. If you’d told them the whole truth from the start, how much pain could you have saved them? You try to put that question out of your mind.

“There’s something else,” you say. “A different plan for our freedom, that Toriel and I made after we’d taken you in.”

Chara eyes you intently. “You had another plan?”

“Yes. We didn’t tell you because we didn’t want to put the responsibility on your shoulders.” You almost laugh. “Clearly, that was a mistake. Be that as it may... what do you know about boss monsters?”

“Um.” Chara thinks for a moment. “I know that they’re more powerful than other monsters. And that you guys are the only ones in the Underground.” They shrug. “That’s about it.”

You nod. “In order to explain the plan, I must tell you about two unusual features of our kind. First: whereas most monsters’ souls disappear the instant they die, we boss monsters possess souls that can persist for a few moments after our bodies are gone. Second: a boss monster’s life is closely entwined with that of its offspring. We only progress into old age when we have children of our own; otherwise our lives can continue indefinitely. However, once we have children, our life force gradually flows into them. Once the child has reached maturity, the parents eventually pass away naturally.”

Asriel’s eyes shimmer with tears that he quickly wipes away. When you first explained this to him a few years ago, it upset him greatly. You can tell the notion of you and Toriel’s eventual death still frightens him, but he’s handling it better on this occasion.

You speak to him and Chara once more. “Perhaps you can see where this is going. Many years from now, when you are both adults, Toriel and I will approach the end of our lives. When that time comes, Chara, we would ask you to carry out a very important task for us.”

You see shock in Chara’s eyes, their lips opening to reply, so you hurry to the end of your explanation before they can argue.

“We would ask you to stay by us in our last moments, absorb one of our souls, and use it to pass through the barrier. You would act as an ambassador to the humans, able to come and go between our worlds. You would negotiate on our behalf, and convince humans to break the barrier from the outside.”

“No,” Chara says immediately.

“My child–” begins Toriel.

“No,” Chara repeats. “I can’t do it.”

You hadn’t expected such a forceful rejection of the idea. Less than an hour ago Chara was ready to die to free monsters. But now the idea of simply serving as a diplomat is beyond consideration? You try not to let your confusion show.

“No matter,” you say reassuringly. “It bears repeating that, were it not for today’s events, we would not have mentioned any of this to you for many years. If that is how you feel, I shall not press the matter further.”

“Thank you,” Chara says, “but I’ll never be able to be your ambassador.” Their cheeks are flushed and they avoid meeting your eyes. “I’m sorry.”

You and Toriel exchange glances; it seems she’s as bewildered as you are. “Never mind,” she says bracingly, reaching across the table to hold Chara’s hand. “I’m sure we can find another solution, given time.”

* * *

You put the kids to bed a little earlier than usual that evening. Toriel does a surreptitious sweep of their bedroom and removes anything that could be used as a weapon while they’re busy cleaning their teeth in the bathroom. It’s you who suggests a bedtime story, a tradition that you phased out a few months ago when Chara decided they were too old for such things. Tonight, though, they accept without argument. Asriel’s already asleep and Chara’s obviously drowsy by the time you finish reading, which you’re thankful for; you can be fairly certain they won’t try anything stupid, at least tonight.

Nonetheless, you and Toriel sit up for a little while outside their bedroom door, just to be safe. Once an hour has passed with no sound except for occasional snores from Asriel, you quietly get up and return to your own room.

“What now?” Toriel says to you in an undertone once you’re both sitting in bed.

You smile sadly. “Search me. I’ll clear our schedules tomorrow, first of all.”

“Yes. We should have at least a full day dedicated to dealing with the fallout. The real question is exactly how best to do that.”

“Hmm,” you say ponderously. “I have some vague ideas, but nothing that could yet be called a plan.”

“Well, that’s still more than I have.” Toriel takes your hand and runs a thumb over your palm. “Let’s hear these vague ideas, shall we?”

You nod. “First: we should give Chara and Asriel a chance to talk alone at some point. They’ll no doubt have a lot to say to each other, and our presence may stifle an honest conversation between them.

“Second – and this is related to the first – we need to be able to trust that we can leave them alone together without Chara making another suicide attempt.” You hear Toriel draw breath sharply. “Keeping them both under supervision and confiscating sharp objects is all very well for a day or two, but it won’t do them any good in the long term. We need to figure out how to get them both to a place where they can be left to their own devices without something terrible happening. And they need to see that we are affording them that dignity.”

“That word. Suicide,” Toriel mutters. “Just thinking about it in connection to Chara makes my skin crawl. Still, I suppose there’s no sense in sugar-coating it.”

“I’m not fond of it either,” you say, “but we can’t solve the problem if we refuse to acknowledge it for what it is.”

“You’re quite right,” admits Toriel. “We shall simply have to get used to the discomfort.” She leans her head on your shoulder with a heavy sigh. “I just – it’s only been a few hours, Gorey, and I’m already exhausted from worrying. And I don’t know if I’ll – if I’ll ever be able to _stop_ worrying, now that this has happened...”

“We can take some preventative measures,” you suggest. “Get rid of the buttercups in the garden, for starters. Blunt the kitchen tools, or else keep them locked away when we’re not using them. But Chara must still be allowed their freedom.”

“Yes,” murmurs Toriel. “But goodness, it’ll be hard to let go of the fear.”

“It will.” You curl an arm around her shoulder and pull her closer to you. “It will.”

You sit silently for a minute feeling Toriel’s shoulder rise and fall under your hand in time with her slow, measured breaths. Presently she clears her throat and says, “I’ve just had a thought.”

“Mm?” you respond.

“Chara’s plan hinged on Asriel’s cooperation,” she says. “Convincing Chara that their life is worth living... it can be done, but it’ll be a long and difficult process. We can’t force it. On the other hand, it might be easier to impress upon Asriel that he mustn’t help Chara, should they try again. As long as he understands that their plan is, to put it bluntly, terrible, that ought to at least lower the risk.”

“Yes,” you say, biting back an ill-advised pun about _knives_ and _putting things bluntly._ “I think Asriel was being honest when he said he didn’t like Chara’s plan. And he was was unquestionably right that he wouldn’t have been able to go through with killing any humans. It’s just a question of whether he’ll be able to hold onto that resolve when we’re not there to back him up. If Chara tries to convince him to make a second attempt...”

Toriel shudders. “Yes. We need to be sure he’ll refuse.”

“In that case, we have the beginnings of a plan,” you conclude. “A three-pronged attack, so to speak. One: take some practical steps to make it harder for Chara to re-attempt. Two: give them the emotional support they need to prevent them from _wanting_ to re-attempt. Three: make sure that Asriel won’t enable them further.”

Toriel gulps; you pull her in to your chest and she turns to embrace you properly.

“I–” she whispers. “This isn’t a nice thing to say, but I really thought better of Asriel. For goodness’ sake, what was he _thinking?_ ”

“I feel the same way,” you confess. “Clearly his heart is in the right place, but the fact that he was ready to help Chara kill themself... I can’t make sense of it. I shall have to talk to him tomorrow; try to understand what his motives were.”

Toriel sighs bitterly and buries her face in the crook of your neck. “God. Why do I feel like we’re at war again, Gorey?”

You squeeze her hand. “I suppose we are, in a manner of speaking.”

“At war with our own children?” she asks. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“No,” you say gently. “Chara and Asriel, you and me; we’re a team. United against the forces of...”

“Stupidity?” Toriel ventures, laughing half-heartedly.

“I was going to say chaos,” you chuckle. “But yes, I suppose stupidity works.”

Toriel hugs you a bit tighter. “I’m so glad you were here today. If I’d had to deal with all this myself I’d have completely broken down by now.” A sob wracks her body. “I just – I feel so useless. I’ve just been sitting here panicking, and you’ve already come up with a whole plan of action for tomorrow. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Shh, shh,” you say, rubbing her shoulders soothingly. “You’re the one who suggested changing Asriel’s mind, don’t forget. Truthfully, I wouldn’t even have gotten this far if it weren’t for you. When I found out what Chara had done, I almost froze up completely. I’d have been worse than useless if you hadn’t taken charge the way you did.”

Toriel looks up at you and manages a weak smile. “I suppose it’s lucky we have each other, then.”

You bend down to kiss her forehead. “Not a day goes by where I don’t think how lucky I am to have you, Tori.”

* * *

Sleep is a long time coming after all the day’s anxieties, and it must be well past midnight before you manage to nod off. Nonetheless, you wake up far earlier than usual the next morning and find yourself unable to go back to sleep; your nerves must still be on red alert. You leave Toriel asleep and pad down the hallway to the children’s room, just to make sure they’re still safe. You open the door as softly as you can and poke your head inside, carefully navigating your horns around the doorframe.

Your heart jumps into your throat for just a second when you see Chara’s empty bed, but then you turn to look at Asriel’s, and relax. They’re both there; Asriel sprawled across the middle of the bed, and Chara curled up on the outer edge, clutching him like an oversized teddy bear. The covers are still askew where Chara must have folded them back to get in. Their stillness and slow breathing tells you that neither is yet awake.

You suppose you ought to wake them, or else leave them in peace until they stir by themselves. But it’s a long time before you can manage to do anything but stand, and stare, and thank your lucky stars that they’re both still alive.


End file.
